Reunited
by Felix-RaAk
Summary: Coming home after two years is great, isn't it?


**Reunited**

**Disclaimer: **I own absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing, I just borrowed the characters and I don't try to make any money with this story, so please don't sue me!

**Summery: **Coming home after two years is great, is it not?

The rain was unswervingly falling down upon the deserted streets on this fateful Saturday, the 23rd of September. The pitch black clouds concealed the beautiful stars, which were twinkling in their spheres as well as the pale moon, which seemed to be fighting against its confinement, because every once a while even the alleys were illuminated by the white moonlight for a second or two. The few trees standing in this city were slightly see-sawing, the leaves rustling due to a moderate breeze and the lanterns flickering, creating a gloomy atmosphere.

The only person walking in the streets on this day was a 19-year-old, black haired, young woman. She wore a tight blue coat and a knee-length skirt and her face was neatly hidden behind a thick, white scarf. She held two shopping bags in her right hand and an umbrella in her left hand. One by one the raindrops hit her umbrella, exploding with a loud thud into thousands and thousands of smaller ones, each of them glimmering every now and then like bluish diamonds as the beautiful moonlight retracted in them. Inwardly she cursed the foul and brass monkey weather, but still kept on walking in her calm way. After all she was not in a real hurry today. But as the weather got worse minute-by-minute, she started running towards her home, past the flickering lanterns, past the dark alleys and past the rustling trees, not once looking back.

As she turned around the last corner she slowed down a little bit. The young woman looked up at the sky and felt the cold raindrops on her face, bringing back those hated memories of him. On rainy days like this she could always see his face clearly in her mind's eye, smiling at her.

If he was here, he would most certainly walk next to her, the bags in his right, the umbrella in his left hand and grin at her with his cheery smile, assuring her that it would stop raining soon enough in order to cheer her up. If she said, she was cold, he would give her his jacket and if she said, the rain was making her wet, he would walk closer to her, maybe even lay his arm around her. But fact was, he was not walking next to her, he was not cheering her up, he maybe was not even in this country at the moment.

He had left her over two years ago without a single word. He had been gone the day after her seventeenth birthday, just a single note in his empty room.

She had wanted to talk to him all alone in order to thank him for the birthday present he had given her. But as she had come into his room, he and almost all of his belongings had not been there any more. That day, she remembered clearly as if it had just been yesterday, she had been running around the house, screaming his name. She had been so jazzed, she had not even seen the note on his door.

_I'll be coming back. Please wait for me._

The young woman tried to keep her tears in check. She had always thought that her life before her fiancé had come into it like a whirlwind, had been better, more quite, more peaceful and more relaxing. And maybe it really had been, but he had shown her what living really meant. He had shown her what it was like to be loved, to be jealous, to have fun and most importantly to love, although she had not recognized her feelings back then.

Soon after her fiancé had left, her father-in-law had also left, trying to find his son, but had come back after a year of inconclusive manhunt. And not a week afterwards, three Amazons, a cook, a dark haired boy and an old grandmaster had left as well, each of them trying to find the boy for their own personal reasons. The only one who had not run off to find him was the young girl walking in the streets right now. After all he had asked her to wait for him. Of course, with her fiancé gone, the boys beat a path to her door again, but she had not even once thought about another man in her life and nor had her father.

The young woman snapped out of her thoughts as she saw a figure standing in front of her house. He was standing there in the middle of the pouring rain without an umbrella, not moving at all, just looking at her house.

She knew she should be getting away from the figure as far as possible, because for all she knew he could have been a criminal, but something about him was so familiar, so comforting, so handsome. So, instead of running away, the young woman moved closer towards the man, who had not noticed her at all. Hesitantly she closed the short distance between herself and the man and stopped two steps next to him. Indeed, she could not make out his features, because it was too dark, but the way he was standing, holding his huge backpack with just one hand, the way his strong chest heaved and sank as he breathed in and out, sent shivers down the girl's spine.

The young woman knew she should not be feeling this way, but this man was just too mesmerizing. Trickles of water ran down his chin and dropped to the ground and the young woman found that she could not tear her gaze away from this man.

So she closed the remaining distance between them, held the umbrella high over herself, so that it would cover both of them, smiled sweetly as she looked him directly into the face and opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing outside in the middle of the night in this heavy rain and without an umbrella.

At this moment a lightning illuminated the whole street, including the stranger's features. Instantly her smile cracked and her hands flew up to her mouth, not caring that the bags and the umbrella were falling uselessly to the ground. The young girl hardly noticed the glass, which shattered with an enormously noisy big bang.

The young man's face was more muscular than she had ever seen it before and its shape was more masculine. He was still not looking at her but at the house, his hands clenched to fists, hanging motionlessly at his sides. Only now the young woman discovered that it was not the rain, that was running down his face but a trickle of tears. But this did not matter to her at all. Her own tears started to well up in her eyes as one of her hands moved slowly towards the man's face.

The young woman was afraid that her fingertips would just go through his face and it would turn out to be another one of her dreams. But as her fingertips made contact with his face, softly caressing his cheek, her tears flew freely and uncontrollably from her eyes and her heart skipped a beat or two.

"Ran-ma?"

And for the first time the taller man tore his gaze away from the house as he looked down and into a pair of beautiful hazel eyes. As he saw her he nodded slowly. Then his eyes lit up and he smiled softly down at her.

Guiltily and hesitantly Ranma opened his arms and closed his eyes, preparing himself for the beating of his life, but the young woman saw in his actions rather an invitation than an order to beat him up. She threw herself into his open arms and started to cry into his shoulder, while he, only for a split second surprised by her embrace, enclosed her in his strong arms.

The heavy rain decreased slightly, while the two of them hugged each other tightly, the young woman never wanting to loosen her grip on him ever again. She clutched onto his shirt in desperate need and felt his grip tighten on her. The young woman loved the pleasurable feeling of his muscular arms around her, pressing her well shaped body against his wet, strong one. But his embrace did not feel the same way as it had two years ago. It was a lot more intense and not the embrace of a protector or a good friend but a lover's embrace.

The umbrella, which lay upside-down on the ground, was filled with water and slowly overflowing, whereas some red liquid, which leaked since the bag had hit the ground, encrimsoned said bag. But neither the young man nor the young woman cared much about it.

Ranma, wet to the bones and shivering from the cold, felt the hot tears on his chest, which were running down his shirt and felt the woman in his arms trembling violently. One of these warm tears flowed over his heart and further down, leaving a trail of warmth on the young man's cold body. Suddenly he loosened his grip on her and looked down.

"Akane"

As he smiled down at her, Akane completely forgot about the rain, completely forgot about her tears and completely forgot about the two years of loneliness. She just felt the bitterness of the one having been left alone and behind for two years and closed the distance between them in a second. This time, however, she thumbed simultaneously with both of her fists against his chest; hard, mercilessly, repeatedly.

"H-how could you just u-up and leave me? I've been waiting for two years now, you jerk!" she yelled at him, beating every inch of his chest as hard as she could. "H-how? W-why?"

Ranma knew he deserved every punch she threw at him, but nevertheless it hurt. After two years of separation he had totally forgotten how strong she really was and her punches proved that she had not stopped training, probably because she wanted to kill him the day he would come back. But the young man did not even once try to dodge one of her blows nor did he try to talk to her. He simply held her, letting her release all of her anger at him.

And after heaps of time the young woman's anger and bitterness decreased. She leaned against him again, rubbing with her cheek against his muscular chest and trying to wipe her remaining tears off. His name became her mantra and he rested his head on hers, avoiding to move too much, because every time he moved even a little, his chest would hurt and the girl in his arms would wince, causing him even more pain.

Neither of them heard the door open nor the loud gasp following afterwards, because they were both captured in their own little world where nothing but the two of them existed. Ranma reluctantly pulled away again and gazed lovingly at the young woman in front of him. He leaned closer towards her face and saw how she was closing her eyes, leaning in to kiss him. And he moved even closer, her hot breath on his wet lips feeling like a warm summer breeze in heaven.

The young woman could suddenly feel his lips on hers and a warm sensation building up in her heart, spreading slowly – like a pleasant disease – through her whole body, into her cold limbs and into her head, warming her up again. Having sent the young woman in dizzying heights, the warm feeling did not fade but continued to send even stronger waves of warmth throughout her whole body. She had been praying to all the gods she knew for over two years. She had begged them to send him back to her, but nothing had ever happened. And now he was here, kissing her softly.

The young adults could not feel the ground beneath their feet and could not feel the rain drops any more. They forgot about their wet clothes, which were sticking to their freezing bodies. They did not have a single care in the world. And in this one, blissful moment the two years of suffering, all the tears and all of the sleepless nights were forgotten. They kissed in the middle of a rainstorm in the middle of a dark street in the middle of the night. And it could not have been any better – or so they thought.

"Ranma Saotome?"

Reluctantly the young man broke the kiss and drew back at little, watching how the young woman in front of him slowly opened her eyes, a brilliant smile forming on her red lips. And before he could completely turn to the voice, that had called him or the young woman could open her eyes completely a loud snap could be heard and the young man had a red hand print on his cheek and a fuming woman in front of him.

"Ranma Saotome!" Kasumi snarled at him threateningly. "How, how dare you showing yourself here after this two years?! How dare you?!"

Both the young man and the young woman stood there thunderstruck, watching the normally calm and serene woman in awe. Her everlasting smile was replaced by an angry look and her left hand clutched to her umbrella in mere rage. Immediately the young man hid behind Akane and vanished completely from sight, leaving a stunned Kasumi and a giggling and blushing younger woman behind.

"Watch where you put that hands of yours!" she whispered. "I'm ticklish!"

This was all the information the young man needed.

And suddenly a very bemused Kasumi felt a little out of place. She stood under her umbrella and watched her younger sister laughing. And for the first time in two years the young woman's heart and soul laughed, not just her mind. Her cheeks were slightly pink, her lips curled up, her teeth biting her lower in order to stifle her laughter and her eyes sparkling with joy and anticipation. The slightly older woman had to admit that she envied her little sister a little bit, but nevertheless smiled at the sight, although she still had a bone to pick with a certain someone.

"Ranma Saotome!" she started with the angriest voice she could muster and immediately the laughter died. "You are so lucky to have my sister's heart. Don't you dare leaving her again or I promise I'll hunt you down!"

At once the young man re-emerged from the shadows, his hands on the young woman's belly and his head resting on hers. He smiled softly at her and then looked at his sister-in-law, while the young woman cuddled herself into the man's body, putting her smaller hands onto his.

"I promise you I won't leave her again," he told her, his grip tightening on the young woman, causing her to look up at him in delight and wonder.

"Do you really think I would have let you go ever again now that I finally...," the young woman began, but Ranma did not let her finish his sentence.

"After-after all she-she is the woman I-I-I l-l-lo-love," he nervously, almost shyly stammered.

And before the young man knew what was happening to him, he was kissed furiously, passionately, but none the less softly by the young woman in his arms. She had swiftly turned around in his arms and was now sensuously and really slowly moving her hands over his chest, never breaking the kiss. Her hands passed his shoulders and encircled his neck and were about to play with his pigtail as she noticed that it was not there any more. Reluctantly she broke the kiss and purred his name.

"I love you too, you big dummy," she said and added right afterwards. "By the by, where's your pigtail? You lost it or something?"

"Oh my!" Kasumi suddenly exclaimed, cutting the man's voice off. "You two must be wet to the bones! You have to get out of your clothes and into the tub as soon as possible!"

And before Akane or Ranma could say or do anything, Kasumi had already picked up the umbrella and the bags and was pushing them inside the house, up the stairs, into the bathroom and closed the door, which was opened not a second later by a crimson blushing young woman.

"What are you doing?" Akane whispered furiously and was nearly missed by her older sister as the water rushed loudly into the tub. "He's – he's undressing himself and and wants to take a bath and you, you just pushed me _inside_! What were you _thinking_? Honestly!"

"I just thought my dear little sister wanted a little privacy," she innocently claimed and continued as the young woman in front of her wanted to protest: "Gosh, Akane! You're a nineteen-year-old, gorgeous young woman and in there is the man you love, right? He's been gone for over two years and I know you have a lot of questions for him and a lot to tell him and vice versa. What are you waiting for? As long as he keeps his hands to himself, everything is just fine! And if he can't keep his fingers to himself, you'll just splash him with cold water, he's a girl and the problem solved."

The young woman could not believe her ears. Her older sister, her _conservative_ older sister, her _ultraconservative _older sister just told her to have a nice, hot, pleasant, long bath in the tub – naked, of course – together with a _man_, with _Ranma_. The young woman's head now represented the colour red.

"What for God's sake are you thinking?" Akane whispered. "Do you know what you're saying? Splash him with cold water? In the hot tub? Wait a moment! Did you you just say cold water? Oh my!"

And without another word the young woman ran into the bathroom, slammed the door shut and left her older sister, who was smiling amusedly at her sister's conclusion.

"Lo and behold, she finally got it."

And with that Kasumi walked down to her father and Mr Saotome, who were sitting side by side at the ground, watching the rain falling down upon the roofs of the neighbourhood. She smiled sweetly as she sat down next to her father and leaned her head onto his shoulder. Soun Tendo laid his right arm around his daughter, hugging her tightly.

"Isn't Akane home yet?" the old man asked worriedly.

"Yes, she is, daddy. And guess what? She met him in the streets. He's come back, daddy. Ranma's back."

Immediately the two men jumped up from their sitting position, looking excitedly at the oldest female woman in the house.

"Where is he, Kasumi?" Mr Saotome asked her, but she just shock her head and put her forefinger against her lips.

"You're still a man! You haven't changed into a girl! Get into the hot water!"

"Whaaa?"

"Now! Get into the water or else! You-you still are a man! Stand up! Now! You-you don't change into a girl any more?"

"Yes! Isn't that great?"

"You're a man, you're a man, you're a man! And _what_ a man you are..."

"Just leave them alone for a while." Kasumi told the old men and walked slowly into the kitchen.


End file.
